Since the dawn of cinema, filmmakers have looked towards the literary world for inspiration, a practice that intensified over the following century. Of course now the primary objective of adapting a book is to buy into the built-in audience and brand awareness that some of them have. Case in point, ever since the debut of the 'Twilight' film series studios have been buying up any and all young adult novels in the hopes that they’ll find the next 'Hunger Games.'
And to that end, 20th Century Fox has pre-emptively bought the rights for the first book of a planned trilogy of young adult novels by S.J. Kincaid. “Insignia,” Kincaid’s debut novel, follows a fourteen-year old gamer who enrols in an elite military training academy during World War III. Sounds normal right? But it turns out the military wants to put a computer in his brain to turn him into a superhuman fighter. Uh-oh… If you want to get a leg up on the filmgoing audience, you can pick up a copy of “Insignia” on July 10th.
Elsewhere, producer Nick Wechsler (“The Player," “The Road, "The Counselor") has nabbed the rights to an upcoming Michael Koryta novel, “The Prophet.” Set to be published in August, the book is being adapted by Reid Carolin (“Magic Mike”) and is about two distant small town brothers "whose torment over the murder of their sister in their teens is compounded when another teenaged girl is killed. One of the brothers is determined to avenge that killing, even if it means committing murder himself." Koryta has other novels with film adaptations brewing, with Chris Columbus writing and directing an adaptation of “Cypress House,” and Korta himself adapting “So Cold The River.” [Variety/Deadline]